Elfin Glory
by Anarene
Summary: A half drow/dargonesti elf is left alone in the big city of Palanthas, looking for an artifact that will reveal her history.


A silvanesti prince and an errant rogue dragonesti sea elf. A forbidden coming together, for silanesti elves are highly preferential to pure racial elves. Dragonesti elves seek harmony with nature and both silvanesti and dragonesti are proud, arrogant races.  
  
The elf born was of fair skin, hazel eyes and light hair. The name given was anarene far'wya nimunya kghi, a fiery elf destined to be a great mage one twilight many summers later.  
  
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Chapter 1: A Fair Trade  
  
Seven winters later, Palanthas  
  
Anarene looked around, wary and careful. She tugged at her hood, pulling it even closer towards her face. She cannot risk being seen. Not tonight. Swiftly, she ran, her feet not making a single sound against the pebbled street. She passed many dark lanes until she stopped before Palanthas' Great Library. With little effort, she leapt up to a high branch of a nearby tree and crouched, unseen.  
  
"Going somewhere, little elf?"  
  
Anarene whipped around quickly and rolled out of the way as a quiet but swift kick that was meant to injure missed her by a few inches.  
  
"Good eve stranger." she smiled. "You must be quite talented to catch up with me tonight."  
  
A shadow moved from the darkness. A little while later, a black-robed figure emerged. The stranger removed the hood, revealing a young male human. "Anarene?" The lad paused, then his face broke in a tentative smile. "What are you doing here?"  
  
Anarene knew that he perfectly knew what she was doing here tonight. "Why, dearest friend, I believe that is none of your business." She twirled around, her cloak flying aorund her. "Perhaps the young lady does not wish for prying rivals to discover her dark plans for tonight?"  
  
"A child of seven, yet as bold as a tigress." he laughed softly.  
  
"You know very well I am older than you. What do you want, Zakaria? It is too late the night for you to be strolling." Anarene smiled smugly. "And I shall not waste more of my time by chatting with you." She hurled a entwined rope of flexible metal towards his feet and as he gave a startled yell, she disappeared into the darkness. Zakaria's feet were tightly bound together by the metal and it was starting to cut through his skin.  
  
His lips tugged up into a small grin. "Fair elf, we will meet again."  
  
Anarene scowled. It was late, far too late for her plan to as she wished. Tightly, she balled her little fists. Damn that Aria, he usually appeared when she most wanted to be left alone. He had been her friend since the age of four, when her mother, the rogue elf Alyonnea Kghi brought her to Palanthas after being washed ashore with their small bought by a terrible storm.  
  
Anarene peeked up into the window using her hands to painfully keep her balance on the thin sill. There was no light left open, but that did not hinder her because her elven sight could see fairly well even in the dark.  
  
She leapt up higher and higher until she reached the roof. Anarene's sharp, piercing gaze wandered on the rooftop until she found what she was looking for. Pressing her body as close as possible to the boards, she pressed a tiny switch that opened a small part of the roof. Swiftly she clambered inside, gracefully and without sound. Her shalifi had trained her well in speed and grace. She was standing on one of the wooden beams near the ceiling. Running swiftly, she headed towards the direction of a small part of the library rarely visited by anyone. In it were the books that withheld the information to her rightful inheritance she had succeeded from her late father, the Silver-Eyed Prince of the Silvanesti Elves.  
  
Dropping to the floor without the slightest sound imaginable, she whispered magical words and the door she was aiming for opened without a creak. Her shalifi taught her as well a few spells that came in handy when time demanded it.  
  
A footstep behind her made Anarene froze in midstep. A soft, familiar laugh tinkled in the air.  
  
"Aria." Her voice had the note of panic in it. "How did you enter here? What made you-" a hand clamped itself on her mouth.  
  
"Hush little elf. We might be heard." Satisfaction was evident in his voice. Slowly he let go.  
  
"You cannot think of using this as blackmail for me, Aria." Anarene laughed nervously. "I am the-"  
  
"You know very well I can, Anarene." He grinned.  
  
Anarene sighed. Aria's father was one of the library's officials, and he could very easily charge Anarene with breaking into the city's library. "My mother would faint if she knew I had been caught." She glared at him. His sparkling ice blue eyes stared innocently back.  
  
"I would gladly keep my mouth quiet if."  
  
"If?"  
  
"If you promise me that you would do this one thing that I would ask of you 8 summers after tonight."  
  
She glanced up warily at him. "That would depend on whether I would kill you before you reach the age of sixteen."  
  
"Is that a yes, flaxen-haired maid?"  
  
"That is a no. The Gods only know what your mind would think." Anarene turned her back on him. "Call your father if you wish. Let him find someone is not here." She bended her knees, poised to vanish when Aria gripped her elbow.  
  
"Looking for this?" he taunted, holding up a book with the label of the Silvanesti in elvish script. She gasped. "H-how?"  
  
"It was easy." he said casually. "Now, promise me that and I will let you go together with this book."  
  
"You will warrant what?" Anarene asked suspiciously.  
  
Aria fumbled around a bit in the dark and held up a bracelet she knew her treasured most. The reason, she did not know. Anarene snatched up the bracelet and the book and turned to fade away into the darkness, leaving the boy staring up into something he could not see.  
  
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End file.
